The principal cotton-growing regions of Turkey are on the Cicilian Plains in Adana, the Aidin district in Smyrna and other districts in Armenia, Palestine and Mesopo tamia. During the cotton famine period, 1860 65, high prices stimulated production and as much as 240,000 bales (weight of bales un known) were exported in 1865. Following the decline in prices the crops produced from 1870 to 1895 were small and of little commercial im portance. A new impetus was given to cotton culture after 1895 and by 1912 the production reached 200,000 bales. The crop of 1914-15 was 195,000 bales, and that of 1915-16055,000. The largest crop, about 100,000 bales, is produced in Adana. (The weight of the bales differs so much in the various districts that no uniform weight can be given. The above figures are therefore in running bales).
Persia.—The cotton plant is said to be in digenous to this country, and thrives in almost any section where the soil is favorable and suffi cient water can be procured for irrigation. The method of cultivation is of the simplest, and has continued almost unchanged from early times. Planting begins early in April and continues during the month. Harvesting begins the latter part of September and is finished by No vember. The lint is separated from the seed with the ancient hand-roller machine, while the bales are pressed by the feet and hands into packages varying from 100 to 220 pounds. The staple is a bright creamy color, strong and from I to 11 inches in length. The product of the central, southern and south eastern provinces is exported mostly to India, and that of the north, northwest and northeast to Russia. The latest available statistics place
the Persian crop at 140,000 bales.
Hohnel, (Ober die Baum wolle> (Vienna 1893); Schulze-Gaevernitz,(Der Grosstrieb: ein wirtschaftlicher and socialer Fortschritt: eine Studie auf dem Gebiete der Baumwollindustrie) (1892, translated into Eng lish as (The Cotton Trade in England and on the Supf, (German Colonial Re ports, 1900-08> (Berlin 1909); Passon, Kultur der (Stuttgart 1910); Zimmerman, (Anleitung ffir die Baumwollkul tur in den Kolonien> (Berlin 1910); Banks, (A Short Sketch of the Cotton Trade of Preston for the Last Sixty-seven Years> (1835); Wheeler, (Manchester: Its Political, Social and Commercial History, Ancient and Modern' (1836); Ashworth, Its Cultivation, Manufacture and Uses' (Manchester 1858); Mallet, (Cotton: The Chemical, Geological and Meteoroligical Conditions for Its Successful Cultivation) (London 1862); Ellison, (Cotton Trade of Great Britain' (London 1898) ; Cha man, 'The Lancashire Cotton Industry' (1904); 'Cotton Industry and Trade) (1905); Besso, (The Cotton Industry in Switzerland, Vorarl berg and Italy' (1910); Todaro, (Relazione sulla cultura dei contoni in Italic> (Rome 1878); Lecompte, 'Le coton: monographie sur culture, histoire economique> (Paris 1900); Henry, (Le coton dans l'Afrique Occidentale Francais& (Paris 1906); Roux, 'La production du coton en Egypte> (Paris 19013), and the census reports of the various countries.